specious present

American  

noun

Philosophy.

1. a short time span in which change and duration are alleged to be directly experienced.

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Example Sentences

For practical purposes "the present" is what is known as "the specious present," which covers a certain ill-defined period of duration from which the instantaneous "present moment" is recognised to be a mere abstraction.

From The Misuse of Mind by Stephen, Karin

But this present is not the momentary meeting-place of two eternities or the brief span of time which psychologists have named 'the specious present'.

From The Unity of Civilization by Various

Spatial and temporal relations must sometimes be included, for example in the case of a swift motion falling wholly within the specious present.

From Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy by Russell, Bertrand

The people who will not be patient with a troublesome neighbor, who want to bring everything to a "showdown" are no less the victims of a specious present.

From Public Opinion by Lippmann, Walter

When the finger-tip leaves the filled space, part of it, because of its length, has already, as it were, left the specious present, and has suffered the foreshortening effect of being relegated to the past.

From Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 Containing Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory. by Münsterberg, Hugo